OH-LGG

Lentoposti is just a voluntary publication, nothing to do with an official information from Finnair.

I checked official releases from AY site and there is no schedule for narrow body orders or decisions coming in Summer 2017.

It was just Lentoposti's own story.

Courmisch

HNL-SFO-HEL... sure is theoretically possible in summer season. But are there even reasonably priced interline fares for such a route? The cheapest one-stop fares between HEL and HNL that I can find are via Japan, and they are neither cheap nor fast (long lay-overs). After that comes the dreaded CA-on-AY.

WilcoRoger

HEL-KEF-ANC on FI (AY redemption partner!) and ANC-HNL on AK (BA & AA redemption partner!)

Yes this is three-stops, but not neccessarily longer. ANC immigration can hardly be called busy (vs SFO, LAX, etc) and FI is not bad even in the back.

HEL-SFO-HNL: you also have SJC and OAK (?) to continue from. We flew SJC-LIH on AK with BA Avios. Airport upgrade $50 to "F"

Courmisch

I suppose you mean AS. And then yes, one can book HEL-SFO,OAK-HNL and back. But but but:
Ouch. It's never going to be competitive if you have 600€ penalty to start with.

WilcoRoger

Yeah, AS is the airline, AK is the state

Separate tix would be the way to go. Or redemptions.

r2d2

I understand Lentoposti refers to the statements given in the press conference related to the Q1 results so it's not just something they have made up by themselves. In the press conference journalists are free to ask anything and they tend to ask questions that can't be answered by just reading the published results. The whole press conference is much more public than a private interview with a single magazine. Of course Lentoposti could have misunderstood something so the information they have published is not 100% reliable.

ffay005

You're absolutely right. I'd assume the RVN-PEK rights have to do with package tourists flocking to Lapland. So there would be genuine demand to fly from China to RVN.

It would probably be better to leave HEL-PEK unaffected and have a rotation like this:

HEL-RVN 17:00 -> 18:05
RVN-PEK 19:25 -> 07:45
PEK-RVN 09:45 -> 13:00
RVN-HEL 14:00 -> 15:05

The domestic legs would of course have their own flight numbers, and they would coincide nicely with the main Asian wave, so there would (1) be lots of planes handy at HEL to pick from, and (2) be a lot of capacity to/from RVN for Chinese and Japanese tourists. And as a (3), the HEL-RVN schedule should suit RVN-based business travel, as well, for day trips to the capital.

On the outbound, you could cater the plane at HEL for both legs and then just quickly fuel at RVN. On the inbound, you wouldn't even need to fuel at RVN.

RVN-PEK is about 200 mi shorter than HEL-PEK, which might give an advantage of maybe 15 minutes or so in flying times.

ffay005

Actually, I believe it would make a lot of sense. For instance from Germany, the direct path to HNL would be along the Norwegian coast. It's not THAT far away from HEL, after all. A detour for sure, but a detour a lot shorter than anything via the US mainland. And only 100 miles longer than the FI route via KEF and ANC.

Moreover, it would be a one-stop connection with presumably short connecting times at HEL, as opposed to at least two stops and changes of planes, one of which would occur in the US, which is always a pain considering the potentially long lines at US immigration. And considering the high prices for Hawaii, AY should make money even if the flights are long and fuel-thirsty.

Perhaps AY could once again be serving special North Pole drinks and hand out nice North Pole certificates, like in the good old DC10-30-ER days.

The biggest obstacle here would probably be the lack of cargo.

runsen

Then I have to stand corrected. My definition of having a night flight is to actually fly during the night in the timezone you come from (as this is the time you are getting sleepy).

HEL - PVG may indeed depart in the afternoon but arrival in timezone of origin is 0:00 or 01:00am which translates into 7am or 8am Chinese time. So for me, the flight was not during the night (night actually just started) but that's just my personal view and definition.

The return flight is Chinese local time 9am with arrival early afternoon HEL time..that's neither a night flight by my view. But if you call it as to "pre-sleep" into HEL time zone and maybe pulled an all-nighter this may work...

Anyway, I guess I simply have to shift my flights away from AY metal which is unfortunate as I do appreciate the airlines quality but a good sleep of the baby (during the actual night) is better for everyone's health and one can enjoy the flight (or sleep).

runsen

Thanks for the feedback, this does make sense. Just booked a flight PVG-HEL-AGP. Flying alone this time hence possible to take this (current time-zone day flight or as defined by other "target time-zone night flight") but the connecting time in HEL is not so sweet (neither the return from AGP at 1am to HEL).

WilcoRoger

Common wisdom to mitigate jet-lag is to switch to destination timezone asap (I do this when I step on the plane) Of course if you're travelling with a baby, it's easier said than done

intuition

Some höpö pethaps, but here is an indication that Finnair marketing for the CAN route isnt working.
I just recieved a couple from Guangzhou with the plan to spend time in Sweden and Norway. They flew CAN-HKG-PEK-ZRH-CPH on CA ticket, some flights op by LX. They are the business owner who in my eyes are the perfect target for Finnair. But they had no idea they could fly a better route (and not be delayed in PEK and not lose a bag on the way!)

WilcoRoger

Well in the world of internet and search engines it shouldn't be difficult to find CAN-HEL-Eur - they stumbled upon this near-MR routing, after all.

intuition

I didn't interview them about this, but I assume they either went to a travel agent or directly to the airline they know and trust, and got what ever ticket they suggested.
Also, they might have chosen to go to HKG first with the notion that flying internationally is better done from there.
These are at least the major obstacle for Finnair to overcome. No one is unhappy with "Cheapest price" or "shortest route" but for some markets you can't get through to people with these arguments.

DoTheBartMan

And AK is the airline code for AirAsia.